Off to...

 This beautiful place...tomorrow!  YAY!  Cannot wait!  The last time we were in Holden Beach, NC with Kev's family, Dylan was the same age as Logan (so about 5 mos)....crazy how time flies and how many additional kiddos we added to our gang. We won't be staying at this same house, but one like it...with a private pool!  YAY!  I love the beach!!!

 Here is some of the Steg fam that went last time...this time around it'll be just our 7 and Kev's parents and bro and sis-in-law.  Can't wait to wake up to this view on Sunday morning!

 Dylan at 5 mos old....he really doesn't look anything like Logan does he?!...aside from the blonde hair and blue eyes....

Then we're off to one of my MOST fav. vacation spots...Maggie Valley, NC...nestled in the Blue Ridge Mountains.  LOVE this place and can't wait to relax at good ol' Gentrys!  Last time we were here was in 2011 when we thought our fam. was complete...ignore the pic of me below...that accidentally downloaded on it's own....but LOL...look at the fun we have on Sliding Rock! Can't wait...and can't wait to see my parents and bro and fam!  Lots of good family times coming up! We are so blessed by great family and great vacation spots!

More Mem. Day Fun...

 Just thought I'd post a few more pics from Monday as I'm finally starting the packing process and have a few spare moments (well, not really, but looking at pics is more fun that packing, right?)  It's not been my day from the beginning...started off with cat puke all over to clean up, a 2L of root beer that exploded all over and a fussy baby who always seems to know when I have a lot to do and instead tugs at my heartstrings to hold him (and how can I resist?!) :(  I thought seeing these lake pics would motivate me to pack and get ready for more water fun...Holden Beach, NC...here we come!  The above pic is my crazy gang before we "walked the plank" to the boat docks :)  Logan's first time at the lake...whohoo!

 I think Shelby took this pic of me and my boy and his first boating adventure...he was overjoyed as you can see!

 D was pretty excited to have a boating boy buddy finally!

 The youngest and oldest chillin' in their shades....Hailey's broke when she got on the boat, so she had to wear Nina's "oldie" ones...stylin! :)

 Time to jump in the oh-so-refreshing water...I'll let you be the judge as to how "warm" it was. 

 My sweet Ash...giving us many excuses as to why she couldn't get in the water. 

 Feisty, Sweet Shelb!

 Logan in the arms of Nina...he loved the boat and it rocked him right to sleep :)

 The super cool teenage sunbather :)  I imagine this is how she'll spend her time on the beach soon too...

 Daddy the speed skier...don't let this fool you...it took him about a dozen times to finally get up on his feet :)

 My laid back boys :)  I think L is half the size of D already :)

 The little guy loves just chillin' with his sibs...

 Well, he didn't really love chillin' in the pool....waaaay too cold...mommy should have known better :(  Hailey tries to calm him down...

 ...it didn't really work...

 Finally he realizes he's safe as long as he calmly sits on the side and pretends to be invisible :)

 And a sweet pic of the fab 5 after the pool at a waterfall near there. The hard cry in the cold water wore Logan out....

 Kev and his mini-me :)

And then here's a pic of Ash with her cocoons hanging from her new butterfly pavilion.  It's a good thing we hung them in there that night b/c the next morning 2 hatched!!!  We now have two beautiful butterflies and one more we think will come out tomorrow (or hopefully before we leave for vacation!). What a fun experience! 

It's been a busy day (Shelby also had a friend over and we had PT and Speech appts) and now I'm off to pack and shop a little....wish me luck!  Oh and on a happy note, Kev's sweet mom figured out our whole NYC hotel situation and we are thrilled to be staying in two nice ones right in Times Square (one in June and one in July).  It's going to be a FUN summer of traveling the east coast!  Have I mentioned we have the BEST 4 parents in the world...they are truly amazing on so many levels!!  If I end up with 25 grandkids some day I hope I'm the same! haha :)

Frustrated :(

I have nothing glorious or particularly interesting on the brain tonight except to say that I am feeling frustrated...

1.  Why can't they make teen clothes more appropriate?  Does everything have to be soooo short...and if it is a semi-modest length, why does it have to have holes in inappropriate place :(  GRRRR....put Hays and I both in a bad mood. 

2.  In what city would you ever find a hotel room that only allows you to have 2 people in it!?  Only NYC :(  And of course it's the hotel we liked last year that had a pool (and did allow us to have 4 in each room last year)...hence we only needed two rooms last year for our large fam...this year they want us to pay for three rooms for three nights...can you imagine how much that costs???  Don't ask.  Made me super grumpy today :( 

3.  I am nowhere near packed...and supposed to be completely packed in less than 48 hours. What makes matters worse is that I don't even have half our laundry done...and I am still out shopping for clothes for the kids to wear to the beach b/c two of them have very little :(  AND we have lots of appts the next two days (speech, PT, etc) that will not allow me to get my laundry/packing done.  Again...grrrrr :(

Have I mentioned I am frustrated.  I am.  I would love to just snap my fingers and wake up on Sat. at the beach in NC.  I cannot wait for this vacation b/c the beach is my most FAV place just b/c I love that atmosphere and find it so relaxing...but I seriously might lose my mind before then and not even make it :)  Ok, just had to vent....just wanting one thing to go right this evening....and starting to feel the time crunch :(

5Mos....and a Memorable Memorial Day

 Our Baby turned 5 mos today :( :( :(

 What a chubba bubba he is! :)

 teehee...all decked out for the boat...even down to his flip flops...

 Love these boating beauties!

 My smiley little man!

 And a fun comparison of this year's family boat pic and last year's...I was so sick last year I could barely make it to the boat due to all-day-"morning" sickness :(  Amazing what change a year can bring!

Well, it was a wonderful Memorial Day...of sleeping in (sorta) and then having a fun 6 hours on the lake/boat with Nina and Poppy Stegs.  We had good food, good times on the lake (daddy skied for the first time in years), good times in the pool and just fun in general.  Logan was a trooper too as it was his first time on the boat.  He slept for half of it and just chilled with Nina for most of it.  It was a tad bit too cold to go in the lake water (for him and me and Nina) but we did put him the chilly pool and he let us know that was NOT cool! :(  It was a fun way to spend our Memorial Day and also a fun way to celebrate our boy being 5 mos old.  Gosh, 5 mos...where has the time gone??  I just adore every ounce of this little baby and don't want him to be growing up so fast :(  And now begins our busy week of packing.....ugh....I am thinking we'll be lucky to get all our laundry done at this point....

Vroom, vroom!

 Yay, I actually have current pics to show off today!  In honor of Race Day (Indy 500, that is!), we put Logan in his speedster and revved it up! :)  He wasn't so sure at first.... (mostly b/c it was raining a bit :))

 Then he got into it...

 And wore himself out so he decided to chill for a Sunday afternoon drive...

 Then it was time to get out the big wheel and have big sis take him tooling around the neighborhood :)

 "Hi"...his Fav word! 

 Then out to ice cream to celebrate D's good soccer season :)

 And a couple pics from yesterday at the camp site....are they not the cutest couple??  And there is no denying who eats the most, huh?!  She's 5 weeks older than him and he's 2lbs heavier :)

 Love these kiddos...look at the smiley boy....usually it's Sophie that's smiley :)  And me and my bestie and our babies chillin' below :)

It's been a lazier day than we thought.  Went to late church and thought we'd be racing to Indy after violin, but instead our sweet friend, Cor, got the stomach bug and had to cancel on their fun race day party :(  We were so bummed not to see them and hang out, but it did force us to be a bit lazy...and there's nothing wrong with that, right?!  Feel better, Cor :(

Chillin' with our Besties...

 Well, it's has been a crazy, busy Saturday...not sure why I thought that with school being done, things would slow down...how silly of me! :)  Anyway....before you go thinking these are pics from today, they are sadly not.  These are days I wish I had a nifty i-phone and could just download those pics instead of taking 1000's off our big ol' camera.  But, this is pretty much what we did (and how we looked) today...minus the load of a big belly for Heather and I :)  These are pics from back in Sept when my bestie and I were pg with our lil' babes and visited them camping.  I think Heather looks great...I just look big...not even pg, just wide all over :)  And now we have two little sweeties to add to our camping bunch.  Just picture them between us in a little camp chair just hugging on each other...b/c that's what they did! They were little camping troopers!

 I think I forgot to get a pic of the daddies tonight, but here they are back in Sept, looking much more rested than 8 mos later :)

 And all the big girls look so young here to me....amazing what 8 mos growing can look like :)

 Future bride and groom??

 We did this same yummy campfire tradition tonight...and below is even what we looked like all squeezed in around the fire....

We just adore our besties and had the greatest time hanging out at their McCormick's Creek campsite.  They served us a yummy dinner and it was just restful and fun :) 

But, boy, are we wiped out....it was an early morning of heading to D's last soccer game (he scored a goal too...yay!) and then racing Hays to a school carwash fundraiser.  Then I crazily took three kids to the mall to shop and realized when I got there, I didn't have a stroller and had to lug 20lbs around the mall on my shoulder...ugh :(  Not my day.  Just a day full of racing around and realizing that the next 2 days are the same and then it's time to pack for two weeks of busy (but FUN!) NC vacations.  I am worn out and starting to realize that maybe there is no rest for a mama of 5?

Bye, Bye, School...Hello Summer!!! :)

 I don't have pics downloaded yet from the big last day of school and prob. won't til after our busy weekend....but in honor of this happy day, I thought I'd post a few newer pics of the kiddos over the last few weeks....I love the smiley boy above...especially when he DOES smile...b/c lately it seems he has been super frowny :(  I cannot believe my eyes that he will be 5 mos on Memorial Day :(  Boohoo :(  He has spent his day today just chillin'...we have been outside most of the day at school field day, a picnic and a walk...and he has loved all that...now that he's inside, he's fussing up a storm :(  On a happy note he did officially roll over yesterday...it was so cute how the siblings celebrated his big achievement...they were hugging him and cheering him on :)  I love that he is so loved!

 My Sweet Ash....love this girl and her spunk....here she is on her preschool recognition night a couple weeks ago. She and I spent today as busy bees decorating to make the last day of school fun (sidewalk chalk, front door, gifts for the kids etc) and now we're getting ready to make apple shaped cupcakes after we just had strawberry shakes :)  She is my little baker and decorator...she reminds me of me :)

 My Busy Boy Dylan...love how he loves soccer now...and I just love when he declared today, "I am not so excited about summer b/c I really just love school". Really???  Wow, is all I can say.  The boy LOVES to learn!  He is spending his evening at a bday party and doing laser lite...two of his fav things!

 My Sweet Shelb, the violinist. She won the award for best musician in her class this week and recently told Nina G. she wants to go to Julliard to play.  I love that she's setting her goals high!  She also declared today that she is sad it's summer. She really loved school this year and became quite the social butterfly. She has big plans to have a friend over almost every day this summer...hmmm...not so sure about that!

 And my Hailey...I just can't believe how mature and beautiful she is now...not only in physical beauty, but mental and spiritual.  I just am so proud of her. She is watching her best bud dance tonight and then doing a marshmallow roast.  I hope she can squeeze things in like that now b/c in just a few weeks she'll be in NYC by herself again! :(

And I haven't posted a fam. pic in awhile, so here's one of us at Ashley's "preschool grad".  Sometimes I can't believe I have 5 kids, but I guess this is proof :)

And I cannot tell you how THRILLED I am that it is officially summer vacation for our family.  I have waited for this day since August...and can't believe the year flew by at warp speed.  So thankful for the many blessings of the year...but also thankful there will be some more peace in our schedule now.  We have been running ourselves quite ragged.  I hope we can refresh this summer, spend some quality time on many vacations (two to NC...coast and mountains...and two trips to NYC!)...gonna be awesome times.  We also hope to clean up our house and put it on the market. Phew...we'll see how that all goes!  For now, we are celebrating tonight for another school year done!  Whohoo!!!